The present invention relates to a device for production of beverages by infusion from a product contained in a tablet.
It finds particular use in the field of the production of coffee from ground coffee prepackaged in tablets.
Such tablets are already known and are generally constituted in the form of an assembly of two sheets of filter paper providing an intermediate space for packaging ground coffee.
Various machines for extracting hot beverages from ground coffee are known.
Particularly, WO 00/38558 discloses an extraction chamber for an automatic machine for the preparation of hot beverages, in which the extraction chamber is provided to receive tablets or pellets filled with ground coffee.
The chamber is constituted in two parts, each movable in a horizontal plane so as to be able to move apart or toward one another.
Moreover, according to this document, the two portions are also movable in an oscillating manner.
A machine thus provided gives general satisfaction but requires driving the two constituent portions of the chamber.
It is thus necessary to provide a sufficiently powerful motor and a system of power transmission that is relatively complicated, requiring the synchronization of the movements.
There is also known from FR 2.745.995, an apparatus for the production of beverages in which the infusion chamber is constituted by two half recesses, one carried by one surface of the body of the apparatus, the other fixed on a surface of the heater, these two surfaces facing each other.
The infusion chamber is formed when the two half recesses meet.
Disassembly of the chamber takes place by a translatory movement of one of the recesses.
The apparatus thus constituted requires the association of different abutment means ensuring the retention of the tablet at the time of supply, then during its entry into the infusion chamber.
A movement of the abutment means is also necessary to ensure the ejection of the used tablets.
The prior art disclosed by this reference requires the separate provision of abutment means and ejection means for the tablets.
There is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,520,093 a coffee machine for tablets in a strip in which the infusion chamber comprises a portion movable in rotation and translation by means of a member forming a cam. In addition to the fairly complicated nature of the emplacement and injection of the tablets, this document has a complicated and cumbersome actuation necessarily requiring the provision of the sealing of the chamber by means of the cam system.
EP 1 153 561 discloses a coffee machine for a capsule having a movable cap to open or close the infusion chamber. A complicated system is also provided to apply the capsule in a gripped fashion.
Given the present actuation of infusion chambers, the means for moving the portions of the chamber must be designed to be heavy and complicated, in particular to ensure the sealing in the closed position. It is thus necessary to take into account the fact that a machine of the espresso type produces hot water at a pressure often of the order of 15 bars.